Toy vehicle

ABSTRACT

The object of this invention is to provide a toy vehicle, having a permanent magnet ring ( 55, 65 ) fixedly fitted over each of the front and rear wheels. This toy vehicle ( 100, 200, 300  or  400 ) is thus movable on a magnetic slope surface and a metal vertical wall in addition to a horizontal surface. The toy vehicle has a V-shaped groove ( 15 ) through the center on its bottom between the front and rear wheels, thus being movable on a metal stairway while climbing over the top corner of each step of the stairway. The toy vehicle is further provided with a floater ( 80 ) on its body and a plurality of vanes ( 95 ) on each wheel,thus being movable on the surface of the water. This toy vehicle easily moves on the rails between two or more sections as desired, thus more effectively getting children interested in playing such toy vehicles.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. national phase application under 35 U.S.C.§371 based upon co-pending International Application NO. PCT/KR00/009111filed Aug. 16, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference. The international application was published in theEnglish language on Mar. 1, 2001 under Publication No. WO 01/14304.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to toy vehicles and, more particularly, toa toy vehicle designed to move on a horizontal surface, a magnetic slopesurface, a magnetic vertical wall, a magnetic stairway, or the surfaceof the water, thus being varied in its playing ways and allowingchildren to naturally acquire a variety of scientific attainments inaddition to developing both their initiative spirits and their power ofobservation while playing such toy vehicles, the toy vehicle being alsodesigned to be movable in a circular way within a predetermined sectionof a simple railway and to be selectively movable between two or moresections of the railway as desired.

BACKGROUND ART

As well known to those skilled in the art, toy vehicles are a kind ofmost generalized toys. A variety of toy vehicles, including non-poweredprimitive toy vehicles and powered luxury toy vehicles, have beenproposed and marketed. In the prior art, the powered toy vehicles aretypically designed to move using mechanical power created by, forexample, springs, or electric power created by, for example, motors.Some motorized deluxe toy vehicles, designed to have operationalfunctions almost completely similar to those of genuine vehicles, havebeen proposed and marketed.

In addition, the powered toy vehicles may be designed to move along acircular railway. In such a case, the conventional railways for poweredtoy vehicles typically consist of a set of rail units, which may beassembled together into a variety of railway patterns.

However, such a conventional powered toy vehicle, designed to move alonga circular railway or on a horizontal flat surface, is problematic inthat the toy vehicle only moves along the railway or on the flat surfaceusing the rotating force of its wheels, and so it is limited in playingways and make children easily tired of playing it. Such toy vehiclesalso undesirably fail to allow children to acquire scientificattainments or to develop their initiative spirits while playing the toyvehicles.

The powered and wheeled toy vehicles, designed to repeatedly move onlimited railways, merely perform a simple and limited movement on therailways, thus undesirably reducing the scientific thinking ability ofchildren and disturbing a development in both the infinite imaginationand initiative spirits of the children, and deteriorating children'spower of observation. Another problem of the conventional powered toyvehicles used on limited railways resides in that it is necessary toarray the railways on peculiar large areas, thereby consuming the areasand forcing users to somewhat carefully treat the railways arrayed onthe peculiar areas.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind theabove problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the presentinvention is to provide a toy vehicle, which has a permanent magnet ringfixedly fitted over each of the wheels, thus being automatically movableon a magnetic slope surface and a metal vertical wall in addition to ahorizontal surface, and which is easily played by children without beinglimited by the area and is varied in its playing ways, thereby gettingthe children interested in playing the toy vehicles, and which allowschildren to naturally acquire a variety of scientific attainments, suchas information of characteristics of magnets, in addition to developingchildren's initiative spirits while playing the toy vehicles.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle,which has a V-shaped groove through the center on its bottom between thefront and rear wheels, thus being movable on a metal stairway whileclimbing over the top comer of each step of the stairway.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle,which is provided with a floater on its body and a plurality of vanes orblades on each wheel, thus being movable on the surface of the waterwhile floating on the water.

A still another object of the present invention is to provide a toyvehicle, which is also designed to easily move on rails between two ormore sections as desired, thus more effectively getting childreninterested in playing such toy vehicles.

In order to accomplish the above objects, an embodiment of the presentinvention provides a toy vehicle having a body with front and rearwheels, comprising a permanent magnet ring fitted over the rim of eachof the wheels so as to allow the toy vehicle to be movable on thesurface of a magnetic structure.

In the above toy vehicle, a V-shaped groove is formed through the centeron the bottom of the body between the front and rear wheels. The abovetoy vehicle may further comprise a floater provided on the bottom of thebody, and a plurality of vanes regularly provided on the sidewall ofeach of the front and rear wheels, thus forming a water wheel, wherebythe toy vehicle is movable on the surface of the water in a desireddirection by a rotating force of the wheels, with the body floating onthe water.

Another embodiment of this invention provides a toy vehicle with aplurality of main traveling wheels, comprising a body having a driveassembly operated in conjunction with the main traveling wheels throughat least one drive gear, a plurality of auxiliary traveling wheelsinstalled at the top surface of the body and operated in conjunctionwith the drive assembly through a driven gear, with a permanent magnetformed on the circumferential surface of each of the auxiliary travelingwheels to have a predetermined constant thickness, and a powertransmission means connecting the drive and driven gears to each otherso as to allow the drive and driven gears to be operated in conjunctionwith each other.

In a modification of the above embodiment, the power transmission meanscomprises a mid gear rotatably mounted to the body. This mid gearconnects the drive and driven gears to each other so as to allow themain and auxiliary traveling wheels to be rotatable in the samedirection.

In another modification of the above embodiment, the power transmissionmeans comprises a bracket mounted to the body so as to be changeable inits position by a lever, a mid gear mounted to the bracket, and an idlegear mounted to the bracket while always engaging with the mid gear.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of thepresent invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view, showing the construction of atoy vehicle in accordance with the primary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a side-sectional view of the toy vehicle of FIG. 1, when theparts of the vehicle are completely assembled into a single body;

FIG. 3 is a view, showing the toy vehicle of FIG. 1 moving along avertically coiled metal railway;

FIGS. 4a and 4 b are sectional views, showing the cross-sections ofmetal railways used for the toy vehicle of FIG. 3 in accordance withdifferent modifications of the primary embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 5 is a view, showing the toy vehicle of FIG. 1 moving on a verticalmetal wall;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a toy vehicle in accordance with thesecond embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a side-sectional view of a toy vehicle in accordance with thethird embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a toy vehicle designed to be movable ondifferent rails between two or more sections in accordance with thefourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a view, showing the toy vehicle of FIG. 8 moving along theupper and lower rail parts within one section of a railway;

FIG. 10 is a view, showing the construction of a part of a toy vehiclein accordance with a modification of the fourth embodiment of thisinvention;

FIGS. 11a and 11 b are views, respectively showing the construction andoperation of a traveling mode changing unit included in the toy vehicleof FIG. 10; and

FIG. 12 is a view, showing the toy vehicle of FIG. 10 repeatedly movingalong the upper and lower rail parts within one section of a railway ormoving from the lower rail part within the section to the rail partwithin another section of the railway.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference now should be made to the drawings, in which the samereference numerals are used throughout the different drawings todesignate the same or similar components.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view, showing the construction of atoy vehicle in accordance with the primary embodiment of this invention.FIG. 2 is a side-sectional view of the toy vehicle of FIG. 1. As shownin the drawings, the toy vehicle. 100 according to the primaryembodiment of this invention comprises a body 10, with front and rearaxles 20 and 30 transversely passing through the body 10 at the frontand rear portions of the body 10. Two front wheels are mounted toopposite ends of the front axle 20, while two rear wheels are mounted toopposite ends of the rear axle 30. Each of the front and rear wheels hasa rim 50 or 60, with a permanent magnet ring 55 or 65 being fixedlyfitted over each of the front and rear rims 50 and 60. In the presentinvention, the permanent magnet rings 55 and 65 have high magnetic forceallowing the toy vehicle 100 to be movable along a magnetic railway oron a metal wall while being brought into close contact with the railwayor the wall at its wheels.

As shown in the drawings, a plurality of gears are provided within thebody 10 of the toy vehicle 100 and form a drive force retaining meansfor the vehicle 100 in the same manner as a conventional non-powered toyvehicle. That is, a first large gear 22 or 32 is fitted over each of thefront and rear axles 20 and 30 at the central portion. A first smallgear 24 or 34 is rotatably shafted to the body 10 while engaging with anassociated one of the two first large gears 22 and 32. A second largegear 26 or 36 is concentrically integrated with each of the first smallgears 24 and 34, thus being rotatable along with an associated firstsmall gear 24 or 34. A second small gear 42 commonly engages with thetwo second large gears 26 and 36 at its diametrically oppositepositions. The second small gear 42 is concentrically integrated with aflywheel 40 and is shafted to the body 10 so as to be rotatable alongwith both second large gears 26 and 36.

In the above toy vehicle 100, a V-shaped groove 15 is formed through thecenter on the bottom of the body 10 between the front and rear wheels.

FIG. 3 is a view, showing the toy vehicle 100 of FIG. 1 moving along avertically coiled metal railway 2.

In order to move the toy vehicle 100 on the railway 2, the toy vehicle100 is primarily laid on a start position “A” designated on a horizontalportion of the metal railway 2 after repeatedly and manually moving thetoy vehicle 100 forward several times on a support surface. When the toyvehicle 100 is laid on the start position “A” of the metal railway 2 asdescribed above, the wheels of the vehicle 100 are rotated due toinertia force in the same manner as expected from a conventional toyvehicle. In such a case, the rotating force of the wheels is transmittedto the flywheel 40 through the power transmission means in the order ofthe first large gears 22 and 32, the first small gears 24 and 34, thesecond large gears 26 and 36, and the second small gear 42, thusrotating the flywheel 40. As the heavy flywheel 40 is rotated asdescribed above, the momentum of the flywheel 40 is transmitted to thefront and rear axles 20 and 30 through the power transmission means inthe order of the second small gear 42, the second large gears 26 and 36,the first small gears 24 and 34, and the first large gears 22 and 32,thereby continuously rotating the front and rear wheels at an almostuniform rotational speed for a predetermined period of time. Therefore,the toy vehicle 100 starts the position “A” to move along the railway 2to reach an end position “G” on another horizontal portion of therailway 2 while orderly passing on the positions B, C, D, E and F. Whenthe toy vehicle 100 moves along the railway 2 as described above, thetoy vehicle 100 having the magnet rings 55 and 65 on its wheels iscontinuously attached to the metal railway 2 without being removed fromthe railway 2 even though the vehicle 100 moves on the coiled portion ofthe railway 2, with its upper part undermost, at the upper positions “D”and “E” of the coiled portion.

In the present invention, since each of the wheels is completely coveredWith a magnet ring 55 or 65 on its circumferential surface, a desiredsmooth movement of the vehicle 100 on the metal railway 2 may bedisturbed by the magnetic attraction between the wheels and the railway2. However, such a magnetic attraction can be effectively overcome bymaking the flywheel 40 heavier to increase the momentum of the flywheel40 allowing an increase in the drive force for the vehicle 100.

That is, when the vehicle 100 moves on the railway 2, the front and rearwheels continuously come into tangential contact with the top surface ofthe railway 2. In such a case, the magnetic attraction, generatedbetween each wheel and the railway 2 at a portion in back of thetangential contact line of the wheel, intend to move the vehicle 100backward. On the other hand, the magnetic attraction, generated betweeneach wheel and the railway 2 at a portion in front of the tangentialcontact line of the wheel, intend to move the vehicle 100 forward. Thetwo types of magnetic attraction are thus offset each other, thus beingalmost completely free from disturbing the movement of the vehicle 100on the railway 2. Therefore, it is noted that only the magneticattraction, generated between each wheel and the railway 2 at thetangential contact line, intends to stop the vehicle 100 on the railway2 during the movement of the vehicle 100. However, the magneticattraction, generated, between the wheels and the railway 2 at thetangential contact lines, is almost negligible since the tangentialcontact lines of the wheels only form a very small area. Therefore, itis possible for the toy vehicle 100 to smoothly move along the metalrailway 2 while being less likely to be disturbed by the magneticattraction between the wheels and the magnetic rings 55 and 65 when thedrive force for the vehicle 100 is increased by making the flywheel 40heavier.

FIGS. 4a and 4 b are sectional views, showing the cross-sections ofmetal railways 2 in accordance with different modifications of theprimary embodiment of this invention. In the railway 2 of FIG. 4a, alongitudinal metal strip 2 a, which has a width equal to the distancebetween the outside edges of the wheels, is arrayed along the centralaxis on the top surface of the rail 2 d. In the railway 2 of FIG. 4b,two longitudinal metal strip 2 c, which individually have the same widthas that of each wheel, are parallely arrayed along the top surface ofthe rail 2 d. When using a railway 2 of FIG. 4a or 4 b,it is possible toalmost completely prevent the wheels, individually covered with apermanent magnet ring 55 or 65 on its circumferential surface, frombeing undesirably removed from the metal strip(s) 2 a or 2 c of therailway 2 during a movement of the vehicle 100 along the railway 2.Therefore, the toy vehicle 100 stably moves along the railway 2 withoutbeing undesirably removed from the rail 2 d.

FIG. 5 is a view, showing the toy vehicle 100 of FIG. 1 moving on avertical metal wall.

In order to move the toy vehicle 100 on such a vertical metal wall, thetoy vehicle 100 is primarily laid on a start position “L” designated ona horizontal surface after repeatedly and manually moving the toyvehicle 100 forward several times on a support surface. When the toyvehicle 100 is laid on the start position “L” as described above, thewheels of the vehicle 100 are rotated due to inertia force. In such acase, the rotating force of the wheels is transmitted to the flywheel 40in the same manner as that described for FIG. 3. As the heavy flywheel40 is rotated, the momentum of the flywheel 40 is transmitted to thefront and rear axles 20 and 30 through the power transmission means,thereby continuously rotating the front and rear wheels at an almostuniform rotational speed for a predetermined lengthy period of time.Therefore, the toy vehicle 100 starts the position “A” to reach theposition “M” around the bottom corner of the vertical wall, and moves upalong the vertical wall. In such a case, due to the magnetic rings 55and 65 fitted over the wheels, it is possible for the toy vehicle 100 tomove up along the vertical wall without being slipped down from thewall.

When the toy vehicle 100 moves up along the wall as described above, thevehicle 100 reaches the top corner “P” of the wall after passing by themiddle position “O” of the wall. In such a case, the top corner “P” ofthe wall is received in the V-shaped groove 15 of the body 10 after thefront wheels completely pass over the top comer “P” to be laid on thehorizontal portion around the top corner “P”. The toy vehicle 100 thussmoothly climbs over the top comer “P” to reach a position “Q” on ahorizontal surface. Since the toy vehicle 100 smoothly moves up along avertical wall and passes over the top comer “P” of the wall as describedabove, the vehicle 100 smoothly climbs all the steps of a stairway.

In the toy vehicle 100 of this invention, a rubber lining 55 a or 65 amay be fitted over the permanent magnet ring 55 or 65 of each wheel soas to improve the traveling stability of the vehicle 100 and to preventan undesired slip of the wheels on a surface. The rubber linings 55 aand 65 a also prevent the vehicle 100 from being damaged or broken inthe case of a collision against a hard structure. In such a case, it ispreferable to make the rubber linings 55 a and 65 a thinner as possible,thus minimizing an undesired reduction in the magnetic force of thepermanent magnet rings 55 and 65 due to the rubber linings 55 a and 65a.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a toy vehicle in accordance with thesecond embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, thetoy vehicle 200 according to the second embodiment has a belt-typecrawler 70, which passes over each front wheel and an associated rearwheel in the same as a caterpillar tread of a conventional military tankor tractor and integrates the rotating force of both wheels. In thissecond embodiment, each of the front and rear wheels of the toy vehicle200 is closely covered with a permanent magnet ring 55 or 65 on itscircumferential surface in the same manner as that described for theprimary embodiment.

When the toy vehicle 200 having opposite crawlers 70 moves on the stepsof a stairway, the crawlers 70 always come into close contact with thetop comer of each step, and so the vehicle 200 more smoothly andeffectively climbs all the steps of such a stairway.

FIG. 7 is a side-sectional view of a toy vehicle in accordance with thethird embodiment of this invention. In the toy vehicle 300 according tothe third embodiment, a floater 80 is provided on the bottom of the body10 for allowing the body 10 to float on the water. This toy vehicle 300of this embodiment also has a water wheel 90 on each of the front andrear wheel. The water wheels 90 hydraulically propel the vehicle 300forward when the front and rear wheels are rotated.

Each of the water wheels 90 is formed by a plurality of vanes 95,regularly provided on the sidewall of each of the front and rear wheelsof the vehicle 100. The above vanes 95 are individually inclinedforward, thus thrusting the water to the back when the front and rearwheels are rotated on the water. When the toy vehicle 100 according tothe third embodiment enters into the stagnated water while moving on ametal railway 2 or on another surface, the body 10 primarily floats onthe surface of the water due to the floater 80 of the body 10. Inaddition, the vanes 95 of the water wheels 90 are rotated along with thefront and rear wheels by the momentum of the flywheel 40, thus thrustingthe water to the back. Therefore, the toy vehicle 300 is movable on thesurface of the water forward by the rotating force of the wheels, withthe body 10 floating on the water due to the floater 80.

In the toy vehicles 100, 200 or 300 according to the primary to thirdembodiments of this invention, a permanent magnet ring 55 or 65, havinga predetermined thickness, is fitted over the rim of each of the frontand rear wheels so as to allow the toy vehicle to be stably movable onthe surface of a variety of magnetic structures without beingundesirably removed from the structures. However, it should beunderstood that the toy vehicle of this invention is not limited to theabove-mentioned construction, but may be somewhat freely altered to bemovable along different rails between two or more sections as will bedescribed herein below.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a toy vehicle 400 designed to be movablealong different rails between two or more sections in accordance withthe fourth embodiment of this invention.

In the fourth embodiment of this invention, the toy vehicle 400 has aplurality of main traveling wheels 115, with a drive assembly 120 set inthe body 110 of the vehicle 400 and used for driving the wheels 115. Theabove drive assembly 120 is operated in conjunction with the wheels 115through one or more drive gears 125.

In the toy vehicle 400 of this embodiment, the main traveling wheels 115consist of front and rear wheels positioned at the front and rearportions on the bottom of the body 110. When it is desired to driveeither of the front and rear wheels 115, the rotation of the wheels 115in conjunction with the drive assembly 120 may be accomplished by onedrive gear 125. However, when it is desired to drive the front and rearwheels 115 at the same time, it may be necessary to set two drive gears125 in the vehicle 400. In addition to the drive gear(s) 125, the driveassembly 120 also consists of a mechanical or electric rotational powersource, with a gear train used for transmitting the rotational force ofthe power source to the drive gear(s) 125 while controlling rpm andtorque of the rotational force.

In the toy vehicle 400 according to the fourth embodiment, two auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130 are rotatably installed at the top surfaceof the body 110 and are operated in conjunction with the drive assembly120 through a driven gear 135. In such a case, the auxiliary travelingwheels 130 and 130 have to be partially projected upward from the topsurface of the body 110 so as to be brought into contact with the upperrail part of a railway 140 while being free from any interference in thesame manner as that of the main traveling wheels 115 that come intocontact with the lower rail part of the railway 140. The driven gear 135is concentrically fixed to the first auxiliary traveling wheel 130 at asidewall of the selected wheel 130.

A permanent magnet is formed on the circumferential surface of each ofthe auxiliary traveling wheels 130 and 130 to have a predeterminedconstant thickness. In such a case, the permanent magnet has an annularshape and necessarily forms a magnetic force capable of substantiallysupporting the total weight of the vehicle 400 when the vehicle 400moves along the upper rail part of the railway 140 using the auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130′. Meanwhile, the main traveling wheels 115may be provided with such a permanent magnet ring or may be entirelymade of nonmagnetic material without having any magnet ring.

In the drawing, the reference numeral 130′ denotes the second auxiliarytraveling wheel, which has a permanent magnet ring, but does not haveany driven gear 135 different from the first auxiliary traveling wheel130. This second auxiliary traveling wheel 130 intends to guide a stablemovement of the toy vehicle 400 on the upper rail part of the railway140. Of course, such a second auxiliary traveling wheel 130 used as anidle wheel may be removed from the vehicle 400. In addition, the secondauxiliary traveling wheel 130 may be provided with a driven gear 135 foran operation in conjunction with the drive assembly 120 through thedriven gear 135. When the toy vehicle 400 is provided with only oneauxiliary traveling wheel 130, it is preferable to set the wheel 130 atthe center of gravity of the vehicle 400 for accomplishing a stablemovement of the vehicle 400.

In the toy vehicle 400, a power transmission means engages with thedrive and driven gears 125 and 135, thus connecting the drive and drivengears 125 and 135 to each other and allowing the drive and driven gears125 and 135 to be operated in conjunction with each other. In thepreferred embodiment, the power transmission means comprises a mid gear128, which is rotatably mounted to the body 110 and engages with bothgears 125 and 135 to connect the gears 125 and 135 to each other so asto allow the main and auxiliary traveling wheels 115 and 130 to berotatable in the same direction. When it is desired to drive the firstand second auxiliary traveling wheels 130 and 130′ at the same time, twomid gears 128 are provided for the two auxiliary wheels 130 and 130′. Insuch a case, the two mid gears 128 may engage with two drive gears 125or may be operated in conjunction with each other by an endless belt.

In the present invention, it is preferable to make the auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130′ having a diameter smaller than that of themain traveling wheels 115 for accomplishing a desired good appearance ofthe vehicle 400. When the auxiliary traveling wheels 130 and 130′ havesuch a small diameter, it is necessary to appropriately control rpm ofthe wheels 130 and 130′ by controlling the gear ratio of the driven gear135 to the drive gear 125. Therefore, it is possible to control thespeed of the vehicle 400 in the case of a movement using the auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130′ to be equal to or different from the caseof a movement using the main traveling wheels 115. Since the mid gear128 does not affect the gear ratio of the driven gear 135 to the drivegear 125, it may be somewhat freely designed as desired.

FIG. 9 is a view, showing the toy vehicle 400 of FIG. 8 continuouslymoving along the upper and lower rail parts within one section of arailway. As shown in the drawing, the toy vehicle 400 moves along adouble railway 140 consisting of upper and lower rail parts. In thedouble railway 140, the lower rail part 140 is a horizontal part andconsists of a magnetic portion 140 a and a nonmagnetic portion 140 b.The upper rail part 140 has a double-bent magnetic portion 140 c. In therailway 140, the nonmagnetic portions 140b of the upper and lower railparts are positioned oppositely at the outside surfaces of the two railparts oppositely.

During a movement of the toy vehicle 400 along such a railway 140, thevehicle 400 primarily moves along the lower rail part of the railway 140in a conventional manner. When the vehicle 400 completely reaches thenonmagnetic portion 140 b on the lower rail part, the auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130′ of the vehicle 400 is positioned close tothe upper rail part, and so the vehicle 400 is magnetically lifted up tobe attached to the upper rail part at its auxiliary traveling wheels 130and 130′. In such a case, both drive and driven gears 125 and 135 arerotated clockwise as best seen in FIG. 9, and so the vehicle 400 movesto the back while running along the upper rail part with its auxiliarytraveling wheels 130 and 130. When the vehicle 400 completely reachesthe nonmagnetic portion 140 b of the upper rail part, the vehicle 400 isdropped onto the lower rail part due to gravity and moves along thelower rail part forward. Therefore, the vehicle 400 continuously movesalong the railway 140 in a direction as shown by the arrow of FIG. 9during a period of time the drive gear 125 is effectively rotated in adirection.

Since the toy vehicle 400 is lifted up from the lower rail part to theupper rail part due to magnetic force and is dropped from the upper railpart onto the lower rail part due to gravity during a movement along therailway 140, it is possible for the main traveling wheels 115 to be freefrom any permanent magnet ring. In addition, it is also possible toentirely make the lower rail part using a nonmagnetic material whileremoving the magnetic portion 140a from the lower rail part.

The above railway 140 has a simple construction allowing the peculiararea for the railway 140, thus conserving the area for playing thevehicle 400. This also allows a user of the toy vehicle 400 to be freefrom repeatedly assemble or disassemble the railway 140, and so theparts of the railway 140 may be less likely to be easily damaged orlost.

FIG. 10 is a view, showing the construction of a part of the toy vehicle400 in accordance with a modification of the fourth embodiment of thisinvention. FIGS. 11a and 11 b are views, respectively showing theconstruction and operation of a traveling mode changing unit included inthe toy vehicle 400 of FIG. 10.

The toy vehicle 400 of FIG. 10 has a power transmission means, whichacts as a part of the traveling mode changing unit and comprises abracket 150 mounted to the body 110. The power transmission means alsohas a mid gear 128 mounted to the bracket 150, and an idle gear 138mounted to the bracket 150 while engaging with the mid gear 128. Theabove bracket 150 has a triangular-shaped member, with two rotatingshafts of both the mid gear 128 and the idle gear 138 being held to thetriangular bracket at two corners. A lever 150 a is mounted to thetriangular bracket 150 at the remaining one of the three comers of thebracket 150. This lever 150 is a handle, which is substantiallyprojected from the body 110 and is used for changing the position of thebracket 150 relative to the body 110 of the vehicle 100 when necessary.

As shown in FIGS. 11a and 11 b, the above bracket 150 is movable betweenfirst and second positions. That is, the bracket 150 brings the mid gear128 into direct engagement with the drive gear 135 at its first positionof FIG. 11a, and brings the mid gear 128 into indirect engagement withthe drive gear 135 through the idle gear 138 of the bracket 150 at itssecond position of FIG. 11b. Therefore, it is possible to change theoperational mode of the auxiliary traveling wheels 130 and 130 betweentwo modes by changing the position of the bracket 150 between the twopositions as desired. In such a case, the positional change of thebracket 150 results in a change of the rotating direction of the drivegear 135 or of the auxiliary traveling wheels 130 and 130′.

In other words, when the bracket 150 is positioned at its first positionof FIG. 11a, the toy vehicle 400 can repeatedly and continuously movealong a circular rail in the same manner as that described for theprimary to third embodiments. However, the toy vehicle 400, with thebracket 150 positioned at its second position of FIG. 11b, can changeits moving direction or can move from one section of a railway toanother section of the railway. In FIG. 11b, the reference numerals128′, 138′ and 150′ respectively denote the positions of the mid gear128, the idle gear 138 and the bracket 150 when the bracket 150positioned at its first position. That is, the positions 128′, 138′ and150 of the mid gear 128, the idle gear 138 and the bracket 150, shown bythe phantom lines in FIG. 11b, are equal to the positions of them shownby the solid lines in FIG. 11a. In the toy vehicle 400, the lever 150 a,mid gear 128 and idle gear 138 are movably held by curved slits 110 a,110 b and 110 c, formed on the body 110, at their central shafts so asto be movable under the guide of the curved slits.

In order to accomplish a smooth movement of the lever 150 a, mid gear128 and idle gear 138 under the guide of the slits 10 a, 10 b and 110 c,the slits 110 a, 110 b and 110 c are formed to have desired lengths in adirection of the bracket's movement. In addition, the slits 110 a, 110 band 110 c movably receive the central shafts of the lever 150 a,mid gear128 and idle gear 138 so as to allow them to be smoothly movable asdesired. However, in order to allow a selected position of the bracket150 to be reliably locked to the body 110 without being undesirablychanged in its position, a locking slot may be formed in the slit 110 aof the lever 150 a. Such a function of locking the selected position ofthe bracket 150 to the body 110 also may be accomplished by a biasingmeans, such as a plate spring, installed within the slit 110 a of thelever 150 a. The slit 110 b for the mid gear 128 is formed to have thesame radius of curvature as that of the drive gear 125, thus allowingthe mid gear 128 to always engage with the drive gear 125 regardless ofa movement of the bracket 150 between the two positions.

In the present invention, it is possible to electrically actuate thelever 150 a using, for example, a motor or a solenoid valve. In such acase, it is preferable to control the operation of the motor or thesolenoid valve through a remote control method.

FIG. 12 is a view, showing the toy vehicle 400 of FIG. 10 repeatedlymoving along the upper and lower rail parts within one section of arailway or moving from the lower rail part within the section to therail part within another section of the railway.

As shown in the drawing, when the bracket 150 is positioned at its firstposition, with the idle gear 138 separated from the driven gear 135, thetoy vehicle 400 repeatedly move along the lower rail part 141 and theupper rail part within one section of the railway 140, thusaccomplishing a circular movement with the section as shown by the arrow“X” of FIG. 12 in the same manner as that described for FIGS. 8 and 9.However, when the position of the bracket 150 is changed from the firstposition to the second position, with the idle gear 138 brought intoengagement with the driven gear 135, the toy vehicle 400 does not moveto the back, but moves forward at a time the vehicle 400 is magneticallyattached to the bent portion 143 of the upper rail part, thusaccomplishing a movement from the lower rail part 141 within one sectionof the railway 140 to the rail part 142 of another section of saidrailway 140 as shown by the arrow “Y” of FIG. 12.

In order to accomplish the above-mentioned movement of the toy vehicle400 from one section to another section of the railway 140, it isinevitably necessary to array the double-bent connection rail part 143at a position between the horizontal rail part 141 of the first sectionand the other rail part 142 of the second section. In such a case, theconnection rail part 143 has to be provided with a magnetic portion.

In the present invention, a simple linear railway, a curved railway or acircular railway may be used as the railway 140 without affecting thefunctioning of this invention.

In addition, when the body 110 of the toy vehicle 400 is made of atransparent plastic material through a molding process, the operation ofthe gear train in conjunction with a positional movement of the bracket150 set within the transparent body 110 may be naturally observed bychildren from the outside of the body 110 while playing the vehicle 400.It is thus possible to improve the scientific thinking ability of thechildren.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention provides a toy vehicle.Different from a conventional toy vehicle designed to move on ahorizontal surface, the toy vehicle of this invention has a permanentmagnet ring fixedly fitted over each of the wheels, a V-shaped groovethrough the center on its bottom between the front and rear wheels,crawlers, a floater and a water wheel. Therefore, the toy vehicle ofthis invention can effectively and smoothly move on a curved metalrailway, a vertical metal wall, a metal stairway, and the surface of thewater, thus being varied in its playing ways. This finally allowschildren to naturally acquire a variety of scientific attainments inaddition to developing both their initiative spirits and their power ofobservation while playing such toy vehicles.

This toy vehicle is also designed to be movable in a circular way withina predetermined section of a simple railway and to be selectivelymovable between two or more sections of the railway as desired. The toyvehicle thus gets the children interested in playing toy vehicles, andallows the children to naturally acquire the scientific attainments,such as information of characteristics of magnets.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims. For example, the presentinvention may be preferably adapted to remote-controlled toy vehicles inaddition to the vehicles of the preferred embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A toy vehicle having a body with front and rearwheels, comprising: a permanent magnet ring fitted over a rim of each ofsaid wheels so as to allow the toy vehicle to be movable on a surface ofa magnetic structure, wherein a V-shaped groove is formed through acenter on a bottom of said body between the front and rear wheels. 2.The toy wheel according to claim 1, wherein a rubber lining is fittedover the permanent magnet ring of each wheel so as to prevent anundesired slip of the wheels on the surface.
 3. The toy vehicleaccording to claim 1, wherein a belt-type crawler passes over each frontwheel and an associated rear wheel so as to integrate the rotating forceof both wheels.
 4. The toy vehicle according to claim 1, furthercomprising: a floater provided on a bottom of the body; and a pluralityof vanes regularly provided on a sidewall of each of said front and rearwheels, thus forming a water wheel, whereby the toy vehicle is movableon the surface of the water in a desired direction by a rotating forceof the wheels, with the body floating on the water.
 5. The toy vehicleaccording to claim 1, wherein said magnet rings provide sufficientmagnetic force to maintain said vehicle in magnetic contact with saidsurface.
 6. A toy vehicle with a plurality of main traveling wheels,comprising: a body having a drive assembly, said drive assembly beingoperated in conjunction with said main traveling wheels through at leaston drive gear; a plurality of auxiliary traveling wheels installed at atop surface of said body and operated in conjunction with the driveassembly through a driven gear, with a permanent magnet formed on acircumferential surface of each of said auxiliary traveling wheels tohave a predetermined constant thickness; and power transmission meansconnecting the drive and driven gears to each other so as to allow thedrive and driven gears to be operated in conjunction with each other. 7.The toy vehicle according to claim 6, wherein permanent magnet is formedon a circumferential surface of each of said main traveling wheels tohave a predetermined constant thickness.
 8. The toy vehicle according toclaim 6, wherein said power transmission means comprises a mid gearrotatably mounted to said body, said mid gear connecting the drive anddriven gears to each other so as to allow the main and auxiliarytraveling wheels to be rotatable in the same direction.
 9. The toyvehicle according to claim 6, wherein said power transmission meanscomprises: a bracket mounted to said body so as to be changeable in itsposition by a lever; a mid gear mounted to said bracket; and an idlegear mounted to said bracket while always engaging with said mid gear.10. The toy vehicle according to claim 9, wherein said lever, mid gearand idle gear are movably held by slits, formed on said body, at theircentral shafts so as to be movable under the guide of said slits.